The Inaugural Asian Arts & Ideas Forum: The Chindia Dialogues

The inaugural Asian Arts & Ideas Forum, The Chindia Dialogues brings together established and emerging writers, thinkers and performing artists from China and India to engage in a vital cultural dialogue. Intellectual ties between China and India have stretched over most of the first millennium and beyond and are particularly relevant in understanding the history of a third of the world’s population and its contemporary political and social concerns. Through one-on-one conversations, panel discussions and music performances, The Chindia Dialogues explore the role that literature and the arts have played — and continue to play — in the shared values and interests that link two of Asia’s most influential nations, but also to America and the rest of the world.

The Chindia Dialogues (November 3 - 6) take place in conjunction with the Asia Society Museum exhibition Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest (September 9-December 31, 2011), celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Asia’s first Nobel laureate in literature — his extraordinary achievement as a writer, composer and visual artist, and his visionary commitment to Asian cultural dialogue and global citizenship.

Click on individual programs for more information and links to videos.

Indian writer Amitav Ghosh joins China scholar Jonathan Spence to discuss Ghosh’s landmark historical novel River of Smoke, which is set against Sino-Indian relations during the 19th century Opium Wars. Introduced by Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society’s Center for U.S.-China Relations. Followed by reception, and a book sale and signing for River of Smoke.Watch now

Chinese-American pianist Dave Liang with The Shanghai Restoration Project. The band draws its inspiration from the 1930s jazz clubs of Shanghai, and the performance features vocalist Zhang Le. Composer, singer and double violinist Gingger Shankar will perform a set of traditional and contemporary compositions with tabla player Jas Ahluwalia.

Join Chinese and Indian writers for The Chindia Dialogues - Part I, a conversation-filled afternoon that ranges across Tagore's heritage, cyber-writing and migration.

Literary Border Crossings: The Writer as Traveler Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source with Ashis Nandy in a live digital link from New Delhi. ProfessorShen Shuang talks with Sharmistha Mohantyand Allan Sealy. Watch now

PerformanceThe Amit Chaudhuri Band with Qian Yi and the Du Yun QuartetSaturday, November 5, 8:00-10:00 pm

Amit Chaudhuri's band is not fusion, but a hybrid meeting of his musical worlds, which collide in Hindustani vocals with hints of Derek and the Dominoes. Chaudhuri has not only studied classical Hindustani music, but also focused many of his novels on Indian singers. His music is a hybrid of this classical form, as well as Western popular music. Qian Yi was the star of her generation of Kun performers, but more recently been experimenting with new forms. Composer Du Yun creates an avant-garde soundscape in which Qian Yi and Li Liqun retell the story Slaying of the Tiger General.

Followed by a post-performance talk moderated by Asia Society’s Rachel Cooper on the unique expressive quality of music as a narrative form.

PanelsThe Chindia Dialogues (Part II)Sunday, November 6, 1:00-6:30 pm

Continue the conversation with Chinese and Indian writers in The Chindia Dialogues (Part II).

Seeing Double: The Persistence of the Past in Contemporary Chinese and Indian Culture
Scholar and translator Andrea Lingenfelter, leads a discussion with Ha Jin, Su Tong, Xu Xiaobin and Meena Kandasamy.
Watch now

Tagore and the Artist as Citizen of the WorldAmit Chaudhuri, Tan Chung, Christopher Lydon andSharmistha Mohanty.
Watch now

Join author/activist Arundhati Roy, writer Pankaj Mishra and anthropologist Mohamad Junaid for a discussion on the conflict in Kashmir. Exploring the causes and consequences of the armed conflict, Kashmir: The Case for Freedom examines the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people.Moderated by Professor Philip Oldenburg, Columbia University. Followed by a book sale and signing.Watch now

Across A Cultural DivideSunday, November 6 at 6:00 pmLeo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York City

The Leo Baeck Institute, together with Asia Society, presents a lecture with Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago Divinity School, exploring the discourse between European intellectuals in the 1920s, specifically Albert Einstein and Martin Buber, and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and their views on culture as a transnational force for justice, human rights and peace. In conjunction with the Asia Society Museum exhibition Rabindranath Tagore: The Last Harvest.

The Chindia Dialogues are co-sponsored by the Center for U.S.-China Relations, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and the India China Institute at the New School University in New York. Major support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Aashish and Dinny Devitre, Dr. Indu & Mridul Pathak, The Armand G. Erpf Fund, Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation, Arthur Loeb Foundation, China Energy Fund Committee, and other generous Asia Society supporters.

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